Ismail Haniyeh
Ismail HaniyehWissam Nassar/Flash 90

The Palestinian Arab organizations in Gaza on Saturday stressed the need to restore national unity, to renew the PLO's activities and to reach an agreement on a national plan of resistance in preparation for the establishment of a national honor treaty to deal with the “Deal of the Century”, a reference to the US administration’s peace place for Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The joint statement was issued after a meeting of the heads of the Palestinian organizations in Gaza entitled "United in dealing with the Deal of the Century".

At the meeting, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that Hamas was prepared to hold a meeting with members of the Fatah Central Committee, headed by PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, with the goal of ending the division in the Palestinian arena.

He said that Hamas sees the importance of establishing a national unity government that would prepare the ground for holding presidential and parliamentary elections and then for the Palestinian National Council. The government's task will also be to unify the institutions of the Palestinian Authority in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has been ruling Gaza since 2007, when it overtook the coastal enclave from Abbas’ Fatah faction in a bloody coup.

Since then, the two groups have been embroiled in a bitter rivalry. The two organizations signed a reconciliation deal in October of 2017, under which the PA was to have resumed full control of Gaza by December of that year.

That deadline, however, was initially put back by 10 days, had later reportedly hit “obstacles”, and has never been implemented.

Hamas is interested in integrating into the PLO institutions in order to gain control of the organization from within, thereby winning Palestinian representation and international recognition as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.